Andhra Pradesh, India

2012-02-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

Andhra Pradesh (pop. 75,727,541) is a large state in southeastern India. Set in the heart of peninsular India, it lies entirely within the tropics. It has a longer stretch of coastline than any other Indian state. The Bay of Bengal forms the eastern boundary of the state. To the northeast is Odisha (formerly Orissa), and on the north and northwest borders are the states of Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. Karnataka forms the western border, with Tamil Nadu to the south. The state capital is Hyderabad.

Brief Facts

Population: 2001 census—75,727,541.

Area: 170,919 mi² (275,068 km²).

State capital: Hyderabad.

Largest cities: Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada.

Chief Products: Agriculture—oilseeds, rice, sugar cane, tobacco. Manufacturing—cigarettes, electrical and electronic goods, shipbuilding, steel. Mining—coal, diamonds, iron ore.

People

Most of the people of Andhra Pradesh are Dravidian speakers. Andhra Pradesh is the northernmost region of Dravidian culture and language. Telugu, the state language, is one of the four main Dravidian languages of India. More than 85 percent of the population speak Telugu. But there are also important minorities. Many people speak Tamil in the far south, and on the border of Karnataka there are some Kanarese speakers. In the urban areas, particularly in Hyderabad, there are large numbers of Urdu speakers. In all, they make up about 7 percent of Andhra Pradesh's population. They represent the result of Muslim influence, which spread rapidly after the Turks conquered Delhi in the early 1200's.

Government

Andhra Pradesh has 42 elected members in the Lok Sabha (lower house) and 18 nominated representatives in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) of the Indian national parliament. The state has a Legislative Assembly of 295 seats.

Agriculture

There is intensive irrigation and farming in the deltas of the Godavari and Krishna rivers. Rice is the main food crop, but corn, millet, and pulses (crops yielding pods of edible seeds) are also grown. Cash crops, such as sugar cane and tobacco, are also important. In the dry interior, farming is much more difficult. Rainfall is low and unreliable, so the farmers must grow hardy crops. On land which is not irrigated, they grow gram (lentils), millet, and sorghum. Oil seeds, especially castor and peanuts, and tobacco, are the most important cash crops. Andhra Pradesh produces more than half of India's castor and almost all its Virginia tobacco. The most intensive cultivation is on the valley floors. The surrounding hills and slopes are barren.

Manufacturing

Factory employment has grown rapidly in the state. Andhra Pradesh has nearly one-tenth of India's total industrial workforce. Much of that growth has taken place in electronics industries which have grown up around Hyderabad. The state also manufactures aeronautical parts, cement, chemicals, cigarettes, cotton goods, fertilizers, machine tools, synthetic drugs, and watches. Heavy engineering, shipbuilding, and steel making are important in the coastal belt, especially at Visakhapatnam.

Mining

The most important minerals in the state are coal and iron ore. There are coal mines in the Singareni field along the lower Godavari Valley, and large deposits of high-quality iron ore in the far north. Andhra Pradesh also produces chrysolite asbestos, copper ore, limestone, manganese, and mica. One of the most famous diamonds in the world, the Kohinoor, was found at Golconda, just west of Hyderabad

Transportation & Communication

Hyderabad is on the main railroad line to Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and Chennai (formerly Madras). Andhra Pradesh has more than 4,970 miles (8,000 kilometers) of track. There are over 1,550 miles (2,500 kilometers) of main roads in the state, and more than 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) of other roads. Hyderabad and other major towns have air connections to the national network. On the coast, Visakhapatnam is one of the country's major ports and the eastern headquarters of the Indian Navy. It has facilities for shipbuilding and is an important outlet for exports.

Land & Climate

Andhra Pradesh stretches over 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) along the eastern seaboard of India, and more than 435 miles (700 kilometers) from the coast at Masulipatnam, to the west of Hyderabad. It is one of India's tropical states. The state has three main regions: the coastal strip, the mountains, and the inland plateau. Irrigation in the flat coastal area has helped to make it the richest agricultural region of the state. The deltas of the Godavari and Krishna rivers have particularly fertile soil. Rice and sugar cane are the most important crops. Immediately inland, a series of mountain ranges, covered with forest or scrub jungle runs nearly parallel with the coast. Large gaps in the ranges lead up to the plateau behind. The plateau has some of India's oldest rocks, which geologists believe are more than 3 billion years old.

Temperatures in central Andhra Pradesh range from an average minimum of 55 °F (13 °C) in December to 79 °F (26 °C) in May, the hottest month. In the coastal areas, the minimum temperatures do not fall as far. In the coolest months, December and January, the mean maximum temperatures are 82 °F or 84 °F (28 °C or 29 °C). In May, they reach 102 °F (39 °C). Once the rainy season starts in late June, average maximum temperatures fall back to around 86 °F (30 °C).

Rivers & Lakes

Two large rivers, the Godavari and the Krishna, drain most of Andhra Pradesh. Both rise close to India's west coast. The Godavari rises less than 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Mumbai and flows 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) southeast across the Deccan Plateau. It drains more than 120,000 square miles (310,000 square kilometers) and is the largest of the peninsular rivers. The Krishna rises near Mahabaleshwar at a height of 4,265 feet (1,300 meters). It then flows 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) to the Bay of Bengal. In all, it drains an area of 100,000 square miles (260,000 square kilometers), only the lowest fourth of which is in Andhra Pradesh. The two rivers have the largest watersheds in India after the Ganges. Between them, they irrigate nearly 15 million acres (6 million hectares) of farmland.

Early History

The history of the area corresponding to present-day Andhra Pradesh dates from the Mauryan Empire. During the reign of Bindusara (297-272 B.C.), second ruler of the Mauryan dynasty, Andhradesa became part of the Mauryan Empire. The emperor Ashoka, his son and successor, refers in his inscriptions to a people called the Andhras. The first known Andhra dynasty, the Satavahanas, probably held administrative posts under the Mauryas. They came to power when the Mauryan Empire disintegrated, following the death of the emperor Asoka in 232 B.C.

Medieval Period

Medieval history in the Deccan centers around the struggle for supremacy between the Bahmani and Vijayanagar kingdoms. The whole of Andhradesa, except the Telangana region, formed part of the territory of Vijayanagar. Vijayanagar—the City of Victory—was the capital of this great military empire. One of its most successful rulers, Krishna Deva Raya, was responsible for a period of territorial expansion and economic prosperity. He was renowned as a great warrior, statesman, scholar, builder, and patron of the arts. His kingdom did not survive for long after his death in 1529.

Colonial Period

From the 1500's to the 1700's, the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English vied with each other for commercial privileges and political influence in India, especially southern India. In the 1600's, the British East India Company, an English trading company, established several important trading centers along the Malabar and Coramandel coasts, including Nizampatam, Masulipatam, Madapollam, and Vizagapatam. Through the 1700's, British and French merchants each formed alliances with local powers. At the end of the 1700's, the British reached an agreement with the nizam of Hyderabad. He accepted British support in exchange for recognition of British rights to trade. By the beginning of the 1800's, Andhra came under the political control of the British East India Company. The districts of Anantapur, Cuduppa, Nellor, Chittoor, and Kurnool were annexed by the company, and the territory of the nizam was brought under its indirect rule. Hyderabad became one of the 550 princely states which stayed largely independent until 1947.

Independence

When India became independent in 1947, what is now Andhra Pradesh consisted of a part of the British presidency of Madras, which then became part of India, and the nizam of Hyderabad's state. At first, the nizam attempted to keep Hyderabad independent. But political disturbances in Hyderabad led the Indian government to send its army to the region in September 1948. The nizam turned control of the government over to India, which incorporated the region into the Indian Union. Hyderabad became a state in 1950.

Formation of Andhra Pradesh

Movements for the linguistic reorganization of states were organized throughout the country by the national movement. In Andhra, Potti Sreeramulu, a politician, starved himself to death in 1953 in protest against the government's refusal to grant the demand for separate statehood. In October of the same year, the government created Andhra out of the Telugu-speaking districts of the Madras presidency. The Visalandhra movement demanded inclusion of Telugu-speaking areas belonging to the former state of Hyderabad. Consequently, the present state of Andhra Pradesh was formed in 1956. Hyderabad became the capital of the new state. The Indian National Congress was the dominant political party in the state until 1984. Its influence declined with the emergence of a regional party, the Telugu Desam. Communist parties have considerable influence in some parts of the state.

Recent Developments

In December 2004, a powerful undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean near the Indonesian island of Sumatra generated a series of large ocean waves called a tsunami. The tsunami's towering waves killed more than 100 people and damaged much property along the coast of Andhra Pradesh.

Indian State of Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh, India